[This episode originally aired October 16, 2024] Plant-based cheese is better than ever, but can we expand our expectations of cheese to ease our reliance on Big Dairy?

Cheese is delicious. Even aspiring vegans find cheese hard to quit. But making dairy cheese is not only rough on the planet — the dairy cows’ lives aren’t great either. In this episode, we’re getting the full picture of the impact of dairy cheese, including the United States’ decades-long surplus cycle with the cheese industry and how it’s connected to Pizza Hut’s Summer of Cheese.

We’re chatting with famed vegan chef and cheese icon, Miyoko Schinner about how far plant-based cheese has come and her favorite plant-based cheese bases. We’re learning practical tips to learn to love plant-based cheese, and having our very own cheese taste test.

🌎 For photos of our contributors and further reading, check the full show notes.

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Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Amea Wadsworth, Diana Holguin, Drew Crabtree, Kenzie Rattray, Melissa Athina, Miriam Jornet
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (01:41) - Our community loves cheese
• (03:28) - Big Dairy, cheese caves, adn America’s decades-long milk obligation
• (07:35) - We’re drinking less milk than we used to, but we’re eating more cheese. Let’s talk about it.
• (10:54) - If one person can teach us to learn plant-based cheese, it’s famed chef, Miyoko Schinner
• (25:37) - How does cheese production impact the planet?
• (33:50) - Is it all or nothing?

In the midst of the one-year anniversary of LA’s devastating, off-season wildfires, we’re reminded that to live in a time of drastic climate change is to prepare for the improbable. From bigger tornadoes and more severe floods to prolonged droughts and deadly heatwaves, no region is immune to the increasing intensity of natural disasters driven by climate change. The rest of the world is coming face-to-face with the brutal reality that people in the Global South have faced for years — when it comes to climate disasters, it's not a matter of if they'll hit you, but when.

But there are things we can do at home and in our communities to adapt before, during, and after disasters. On this episode, we hear from community members around the world about the climate disasters they’ve experienced and how their communities are adapting. We’re speaking with meteorologist Chase Chain about how discussing the weather means discussing climate change. And, we’re talking about how to make ourselves and our communities less vulnerable to the effects of climate disasters.

👉🏽 And don't miss Chase Cain's on-the-ground, behind-the-scenes coverage of the LA wildfires.

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit your Community Classified? We'd love to hear from you!

📱 Want to be a part of the Commons community? Download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Airlea Rasul, Anandi Yadav, Anna , Elisabeth , Tessa Maurer, Tiffany, Zayna Zubair
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:09) - No one is immune to natural disasters.
• (02:40) - How can we better prepare for climate disasters, at home and in our communities?
• (05:52) - How people around the world are adapting to a new normal
• (12:44) - Interview with meteorologist and climate reporter, Chase Cain
• (36:15) - Your prep to-do list.
• (38:00) - Community Classifieds

Do you feel like you’re drowning in advertisements, clutter, or debt? A no-buy year could help. In a capitalistic society, we're brainwashed to default to buying our way out of our problems. That's what makes a no-buy challenge so much more than a New Year's resolution or an extreme budget.

A no-buy or low-buy challenge not only gives you permission to hop off the buy-buy-buy hamster wheel — it also makes you more privy to sneaky marketing and helps you put your money toward what actually makes you happy. These are the kinds of mental shifts that could stick with you for life.

In this episode, we hear from listeners about the different ways to do a no-buy or low-buy year, and what they've learned about themselves and their finances in the process.

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit your Community Classified? We'd love to hear from you!

📱 Want to try no-buy challenge join the Commons community, download the app.

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Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Amandine Thomas, Cara Sanford, Daria, Justina, Melissa Tan
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - What is a no-buy year?
• (03:18) - A no-buy new year’s resolution made Amandine more stylish and saved her lots of money.
• (06:43) - Melissa has found freedom and simplicity in her no-buy challenge.
• (11:20) - Daria’s secondhand challenge rippled out from clothes to other parts of her life.
• (13:15) - After switching to part-time work, Cara was still able to live comfortably due to the success of her no-buy challenge.

[This episode originally aired April 2,2025] The secondhand clothing market isn't equipped for textile recycling. So when your donated clothes don't sell, where do they end up?

With the rise of overconsumption and fast fashion, clothes have piled up in thrift stores, landfills, and incinerators around the world. Countries like Ghana and Chile are dealing with fashion waste from countries like the U.S., UK, and China, and the impacts are vast.

Mountains of clothes lead to fires, polluted waterways, dying ocean life, and lost livelihoods. So how do we stop the cycle? How can we donate with purpose and dignity, and get fashion brands to actually take accountability for the full lifecycle of their clothes?

Listen to hear what our community does with their used clothes, how a new law could force companies to clean up their act, and how Los Angeles's Suay Sew Shop is dealing with the untenable amount of clothing donations from wildfire relief.

➡️ If you want to support Suay Sew Shop, you can browse their site here and contribute to their Textiles Aren't Trash fire relief campaign. By the way, you can earn rewards for Suay purchases and donations in the Commons app!

🌎 See photos of our contributors and find further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit your Community Classified? We'd love to hear from you!

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Holly Kane, Maya Roman, Nate Rauh-Bieri, Nick
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (02:45) - Mirrored catastrophes in Ghana and California amplify the clothing crisis
• (06:43) - Community voices: What do you do with clothes you don't want anymore?
• (12:00) - n interview with Sumaq Alvarado del Aguila, one of the leaders at SUAY Sew Shop — an LA-based vertical sewing and production shop that's recycling millions of pieces of clothing
• (30:17) - Sanchali shares progress for clothing company regulation and responsibility
• (35:12) - Last looks and points to remember

From the halls of government to the depths of the ocean, how deep does the plastic crisis go, and can we recycle our way out of this mess?

Plastic has completely permeated our existence, and its effects are far-reaching, from soil to glaciers. Recycling was supposed to take care of this mess — or was it?

In this episode, we’ll figure out how the plastic industry is behind one of the biggest greenwashing schemes of all time, the current state of recycling, and why Big Oil is banning big on plastic. We’ll also hear from our plastic-perplexed-but-optimistic community and our expert, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup, Laurent Lebreton.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Anna, Mac Hansen, Sawyer, Sobia Zaidi, Tiffany, Valli Divya, Rachel Radvany
• Episode expert: Laurent Lebreton, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:17) - Intro
• (08:12) - How does our community handle plastic recycling?
• (12:31) - Interview with Laurent Lebreton, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup
• (32:22) - How Big Oil is banking on plastic.
• (39:54) - Outro

We see greenwashing everywhere — from product labels to fossil fuel ads. But it goes even deeper than that. Greenwashing gets in the way of climate policy changes too!

On this episode of Second Nature, we’re hearing how our community dodges greenwashing, talking through 4 questions to ask yourself to see if a brand is greenwashing, and we’re talking to Dr. Mara Einstein about how greenwashing has evolved with the rise of social media.

📱 To join the Commons community and see our expert brand ratings, download the app.
🚫 Check out the Dirty Money list.
📞 Want to submit your Community Classified? We'd love to hear from you!

🌎 Find further reading and citations in the full show notes.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Obehi Ehimen, Louka, Leïla Six, Nicole Collins, Verity, Danielle Bird [s2], Bo Meisl, Kenzie Rattray, Grace Hebert
• Episode expert: Dr. Mara Einstein
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Companies have gotten really good at greenwashing
• (02:43) - How to know if a company is greenwashing
• (07:54) - How our community finds and avoids greenwashing
• (11:57) - Interview with Dr. Mara Einstein about the background go greenwashing and how social media has perpetuated it.
• (36:00) - Taking collective action against greenwashing

For the past three seasons of the Second Nature, hundreds of you have shared climate actions you take in our own homes — composting, avoiding overconsumption, eating less meat. These practices give us a strong foundation for what comes next.

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This season, we’re focusing our energy outward and making our efforts bigger by proxy with the help of community. This first episode serves as a mission statement for our season of community and connection, and we are extremely honored to have our first guest of the season be the one and only Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.

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Be sure to listen to the end of the episode to hear our first-ever Community Classifieds — an audio bulletin board of community climate efforts to join around the world. Want to submit your Community Classified? We'd love to hear from you!

🌎 See photos of our contributors and find further reading and citations in the full show notes.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Amandine Thomas,Braden Marazzo-Nowicki, Liv, Melissa Tan, Willa Stoutenbeek
• Episode expert: Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Intro
• (02:32) - How our community is taking collective action
• (05:45) - Transition to systemic thinking
• (07:36) - Interview with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
• (23:55) - Outro
• (26:05) - Community Classifieds

Season four is coming soon, and this season, we're thinking big. Like the ever-connected mycelium networks beneath the world's greatest forests, we're reaching out to one another and finding ways to sync up with community and make efforts bigger than ourselves.

This season, we're coming together to focus our we're efforts where we have the most collective impact — from boycotting greenwashing to building resilience in climate disaster. With perspectives of our worldwide community, top-of-their-field experts, and of course some history and data, we're going to make this a season to remember.

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